48 | DECEMBER 19 • 2024 
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eople of goodwill are com-
pelled to ask themselves what 
they would have done in the 
face of the Holocaust. A young man 
on a panel told me several years ago 
that he felt like Wallenberg due to his 
support for Israel. But to meet the test 
of Wallenberg requires a lot more than 
support for Israel. My support for Israel 
certainly does not put me in such a 
category. Indeed, my support for Israel 

scarcely makes me a righteous Gentile.
One proven righteous Gentile 
was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German 
Lutheran priest who established what 
he called the confessing church in 
defiance of the Nazi regime. His story 
comes to life in the current movie 
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin. 
Starring Jonas Dassler in the title role, 
it was written and directed by Todd 
Komarnicki, and the movie has unde-

niable impact.
It is somewhat difficult to follow, 
as it contains flashbacks to the priest’s 
childhood in Bavaria and his young 
adulthood while he is held in a con-
centration camp. Bonhoeffer early in 
the movie is portrayed as naive. While 
attending seminary in New York in 
the early 1930s, a friend exposes him 
to Harlem’s jazz scene and church 
community. When the two travel to 

Washington, Bonhoeffer witnesses a 
racist incident and tells his friend noth-
ing of the sort would ever happen in 
Germany.
Little did the young theologian 
know what was in store. Upon his 
return to Germany in 1933, his family 
laments Hitler becoming chancellor 
and anticipates the coming horror. Yet 
Bonhoeffer tries to assure his family 
that they are overreacting. Of course, 
the Nazi agenda becomes clear to him 
in a short time.
A man of deep faith, Bonhoeffer 
is horrified that the German church 
has been Nazified with all references 
to the Jewish roots of Christianity 
forbidden. Not only are statues of the 
saints smashed, but Nazi authorities 
even issue a new Bible declaring Christ 
an Aryan. Outraged by praise for 
Hitler coming from his church’s pulpit, 
Bonhoeffer makes public his emphasis 
that Germany has been seduced by a 
criminal regime.
We see in the movie Bonhoeffer 
making his declaration that silence in 
the face of evil is itself evil. The movie 
also exposes silence outside Germany. 
He is unable to rally strong opposition 
to the Nazis among English clergy and, 
in America, encounters indifference 
from the African American church he 
had attended a few years earlier while a 
seminarian.
At this point in the movie, while 
Bonhoeffer is making his return visit to 
America, he notifies friends and family 
of his intention to return to Germany 
to counter the Nazis. How easy it 
might have been to wait in America for 
the war to end. But Bonhoeffer is not 
only determined to return to Germany, 
he also participates in a plot to kill 
Hitler. This is a major turning point 
given that Bonhoeffer was, until then, 
an avowed pacifist.
It’s not clear from the movie whether 
the Nazis had ever linked Bonhoeffer 
to an assassination plot. But he is 
seized by the Nazis and charged for 
conspiring against Hitler. And we 
know enough about Bonhoeffer, who 
was executed toward the end of the 
war, that he was involved in anti-Hitler 
activities.
Movies are usually enjoyed. But this 
movie is not intended for enjoyment. 
Bonhoeffer instills a sense of grave dis-
comfort. And it should. 

ARTS&LIFE
FILM REVIEW

JOHN O’NEILL SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS